In the autumn of the twelfth year of Yong'an, high school student Chi An woke up after a strange time travel and found that he had become an eighth-rank official in the Imperial Academy of Dayong Dynasty. His parents died early and he has a cold and transparent personality. Before he had time to adapt to this strange ancient world, he was involved in a bizarre murder case - in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, two misdemeanor prisoners died silently in a closed cell. They died as if they were suffocated, but there were no scars on their bodies.
Relying on the forensic knowledge accumulated in modern times, Chi An saw through the "soul-breaking grass" murder mystery on the spot, attracting the attention of Duan Qingyou, deputy general of the capital's garrison battalion. This cold-faced general who became famous at a young age looked at him with an indescribable scrutiny. That night, Prince Man Yunzhou visited in secret and asked Chi An to investigate the case in private. It turned out that the cell where the transfer minister Zhou Yan was held three months ago was imprisoned for corruption, but he "committed suicide in fear of crime" before being convicted. Nowadays, someone wants to "clean up" that cell even if they kill two innocent prisoners. There must be a hidden agenda behind it.
Chi An took on this hot potato and met a group of people with different personalities in the process of solving the case: Sun Shi'an, a colleague of the Hanlin Academy who disguised himself as a man and was both wise and brave; Wang Qingru, a personal attendant who looked carefree but was actually loyal (later he discovered that this deskmate was also a time traveler); Li Zhaotang, a female official who neglects his talents; Wang Xuqiu, a greedy and cheerful woman from the world; Yun Man, a handsome and affectionate military officer who has a crush on the female official; Meng Lihuai, a gentle and tough female official; Man Rongyu, the emperor who seems a bit silly but unpredictable;
After an open-coffin autopsy confirmed that Zhou Yan was indeed murdered, Chi An approached the truth step by step. He discovered that Zhou Yan's death was involved in a huge case of money corruption, and all clues pointed to an unspeakable existence deep in the court. During the investigation, Meng Lihuai, Wang Xuqiu, and Xingyan died one after another - some people did not hesitate to raise the butcher's knife to protect the secret.
When the truth was finally revealed, Chi An discovered that the "investigation" he thought was just a pawn on someone else's chessboard. The gentle and gentle prince Man Yunzhou spent three years setting up this situation, just to remove the thorn in the side of the court and clear the way for him to ascend the throne.
At the end, Chi An returned to the real world, like a big dream. And Wang Qingru chose to stay - in a world where he truly had a sense of belonging.
The dead will never come back, the living will move on with their memories.
This is a time travel, a chess game, a battle between truth and lies, and a farewell destined to be unsatisfactory.
This is another version of my previous post
Intention: A smart person cannot be counted as a chess player, and will end up in vain.